Qualities of children with learning difficulties and those identified as being able identified as being able

All children from the focus group interview from ICP and OCP felt that those with learning difficulties needed more help. Children from both schools argued that if they were a teacher they would give more help to children with learning difficulties, since these are the children who need help the most with their reading and writing. Furthermore, all children including those from OCP agreed that those with learning difficulties need extra help and some of this help could come from the clever children as children with learning difficulties may understand other children better than adults. Children clearly recognise that children with learning difficulties are in need of support. Children also appear to be caring, as they would offer support to those with learning difficulties. This view suggests that children are supportive of peers with learning difficulties and prefer to help these children.

James and Tom from OCP felt that children with learning difficulties are liked mainly amongst those who have learning difficulties themselves and not amongst the majority, for example, children who are of average ability, because children with learning difficulties cannot do the same things as clever children can.

‘I feel kind of sorry for the children with learning difficulties, they don’t really have many friends and they can’t do much. I think that’s why people don’t say much to them.’

This view is supportive of what children with learning difficulties said during their one-to-one interview, that is, they feel they cannot do as much as those who they identify as being able.

All children from the focus group felt that those with learning difficulties have fewer friends because of the verbal abuse and bullying they are prone to from others. This is evident in the statement, “no one wants to hang around with them” as one child said. The classroom observations indicated that children with learning difficulties sat together and were not given any opportunity to integrate with other children. This may be because of the nature of the subject; mathematics was being taught and the teacher may have wanted children to sit in ability groups. School staff also talked about the limited circle of friends that children with learning difficulties have. Bryan (1986) argues that children with learning difficulties have problems in forming good relationships with peers. Children clearly have formed an opinion of those children with learning difficulties and they clearly distinguish themselves from these children who they see as different and needing more help. Children from OCP stated that although children with learning difficulties have a few friends, these children would prefer to be in a better group where they can make more friends because children are cleverer. This view suggests that peers recognise that children with learning difficulties would like more friends

and one way of gaining more friends is to be in a better ability group where other children are more clever.

All children from the ICP focus group felt that those with learning difficulties may have friends. Having friends depended on what they are good at; for example, if they are good at sports, people will want to choose them for their team and they will make friends. However, if children are not good at sports, others will not want to befriend them because they may feel embarrassed by

“hanging around” with someone who is not clever, (children understood the term “clever” to mean someone who is intelligent, brainy, in higher ability sets and someone who is good particularly in numeracy and literacy). All children felt that those with learning difficulties have fewer friends because there are more clever children than children with learning difficulties and clever children do not like to hang around with those who have learning difficulties. Bryan (1986) argues that children with learning difficulties may encounter social difficulties and peer rejection. Poplin (1984) claims that children with learning difficulties are able to maintain a sense of self-worth in activities such as sports, music and hobbies as these help children to have feelings of accomplishment, which may help compensate for non-academic failure.

Children from the ICP focus group were asked to think of a child in their class who has learning difficulties and to describe this child using their own words.

The researcher was aware that children will have thought of perhaps

and children with learning difficulties. However, what children said did give a picture of how children (who do not have learning difficulties) view children with learning difficulties. Many words and phrases were used such as:

‘They go to bed late, not smart and not good looking, sleepy, can swear, day dream, does not concentrate, uses muddled up words, may act as a class clown, talk when the teacher is talking, offer ‘dumb’ answers, does not listen so misses part of the lesson.’

These were some general characteristics that peers used to refer to children with learning difficulties. Furthermore, all children said that these children always required help, they were lazy and could be mean but also funny at times. Words such as “stupid” (referring to behaviour) and “shy” (depending on activity) were also used to refer to these children. When asked if children with learning difficulties followed rules, worked as part of a team, were generous, work hard, were successful, clever, polite, caring, pupils responded with a “no”. Johnston (1988) argues that children with learning difficulties are characterised with deficiencies in cognition, memory, language, inadequate achievement and short attention span. Lewis and Lindsay (2000) argue that children with learning difficulties have difficulty in acquiring basic skills, particularly in literacy and numeracy. It is clear that Pakistani peers view children with learning difficulties more negatively compared to white children.

This may be because children with learning difficulties from ICP are regarded by peers as having fewer friends and are unable to do many of the things they can do, such as, answering questions and completing harder class work.

Westbrook et al (1993) argued that there have been negative attitudes to

greater shame with respect to a disabled family member and attempts may be made to keep the existence of such members a secret.

This focus group from ICP was asked to undertake a similar activity to describe children who are clever or more able. Children used a number of words and phrases including “clever, kind, generous, sometimes bigheaded, cheeky and show offs because they know they are good, funny, may lack confidence, do not always listen because they think they are the ‘know it alls”. This view suggests that peers think positively of Pakistani children who do not have learning difficulties. When asked what children’s understanding of clever was, children took this to mean clever as being in the “top ability group” and clever as in being brainy in numeracy, literacy and science. Clearly children regard an individual as being clever in the academic sense, particularly in the core subjects and yet they do not recognise that an individual can be clever in sports, art and music or even be talented in a particular aspect of school life.

The focus group from OCP offered the following set of words to describe a child with learning difficulties and a child who they identified as being a clever child. See the table below.

Table 6: Words and phrases used to describe children with/without learning difficulties

A child with SEN A clever child Both

Always needs help Always gets the right Follow rules

Works hard Funny Kind Lazy Brainy Scared Stupid Caring Shy

Bad tempered

When children were probed as to why they gave the answers they did, children said a child with learning difficulties always needed help and clever children always got the right answer. The remaining characteristics could be found in any child. Luke and James also felt that children with learning difficulties might feel scared, as they will feel the pressure of doing certain things that they feel they cannot do. Charlotte and Jane said that with many of the above words it depended on the context, for example a child with learning difficulties might be scared because he or she may be bullied; this child may not always get the right answer in mathematics but may do so in other subjects. This suggests that peers believe that with the exception of one characteristic, many of the above characteristics can be found in any child. This was different from Inner City Primary School, where Pakistani children with learning difficulties were thought of less well than their able

peers. Data from the research suggests this was because children with learning difficulties were seen to have fewer friends and were less popular than other children who were more able and could answer a lot of questions in literacy and numeracy. All children from Outer City Primary said that those with learning difficulties gave up on tasks more easily than others; this argument is also supported by Bandura (1982) who claims that in the face of difficulty, children with learning difficulties give up on tasks more easily than their peers.

Children with learning difficulties from ICP were able to comment on the types of children who received extra help. They felt a sense of sadness and sympathy towards these children because they were in the low achieving group; however, children welcomed and felt good about receiving this extra help and strongly felt that they needed this to do well. All children said that children who have a learning difficulty received additional support from a teaching assistant. It was interesting to note all children received help from a teaching assistant and not a teacher. In their study, Kelly and Norwich (2002) found that pupils received more help from teaching assistants than teachers.

Ali said:

‘I like getting help from Miss because she explains things to me in detail, she helps me to think; I know some children laugh at me when I get the help.’

Some children experienced tension and conflict from other children when receiving support, as Fahid said:

‘Some children take the mick out of me when I get extra help. I then feel sad, it’s hard them saying nasty stuff, calling me names because I want the help because I want to learn more.’

All children reported that other pupils were jealous because they did not receive the support. Children said they were one of six or seven children receiving this help because they needed it and it would help them to achieve a Level 4 in English and maths. When asked whether they will achieve it, all said “no” as they felt that only clever children could get a Level 4. All children said that it was important for them to get a Level 4 because they would be in the high ability group. This was important as other children in the class would like them more. This suggests that children want to be liked by other children and the one way of being liked by others is to be in the high ability group.

Furthermore, this suggests that children feel inferior compared to the able children. Although children welcome the support they receive, given the chance, if they could, they would like to work independently.

Children with learning difficulties from Outer City Primary in a one-to-one interview reported that they were one of seven or eight who received extra help; they were able to say why they received it (because they could not always do their work on their own and therefore needed help) and enjoyed getting this help as this would help them to prepare for their SATs.

Similarly, Inner City Primary children stated others were sometimes jealous as to why they got help.

Sarah said:

‘Sometimes other children in my class ask me why I get extra help; I tell them that I’m in the lower set. I don’t think they like me getting this help.’

This suggests that children appear to be happy and proud of getting the extra help as it helps them with their work and to do better in school. However, they still would like to be in a better group and given the chance they would prefer not to have learning difficulties as they associate being in a better ability group with more academic and school success.

Brook said:

‘One child I know gets extra help; he finds learning difficult. He has no proper friends and no one likes him; he doesn’t listen to the teacher. He gets help.’

This suggests that children are aware why certain children may get extra help and are also aware that some children with learning difficulties may have fewer or no friends. This awareness may result in children with learning difficulties feeling “singled out”.

Children with learning difficulties in Inner City Primary were asked what they